People spend a tremendous amount of time traveling in vehicles. Travel times include daily commuting to and from the office, taking the kids to soccer practice and piano lessons, taking the pets to the veterinary, shopping, traveling, and the many other common activities that require transportation. Depending on where people live, they use a variety of vehicles to meet their transportation needs. The vehicles can range from cars and motorcycles; to buses, trains and subways; to ride and ride sharing services; and even to unmotorized vehicles such as bicycles. Traveling is time consuming at best, and at worst, boring, frustrating, irritating, and stressful. Rush hour traffic, accidents, bad or rude drivers, and poorly maintained roads, among other inevitabilities, further complicate vehicular transportation. The difficulties of transportation are also compounded by operating an unfamiliar vehicle, driving in an unfamiliar city, navigating an unfamiliar public transportation network, and even by having to remember to drive on the opposite side of the road. These challenges surrounding transportation can have catastrophic consequences. Irritated operators of vehicles can experience road rage and other antisocial behaviors, while bored, sleepy, tired, impaired, distracted, or inattentive drivers can cause vehicular accidents and injury to themselves, pedestrians, bicyclists, animals, and property.
Transportation in general, and particularly urban transportation, present many design, management, and fiscal problems which can directly impact travelers. Heavily congested surface roads and highways, and woefully insufficient parking, directly influence the mental states, moods, and emotions of travelers. The congested roadways cause longer, more dangerous commutes, and the lack of available parking increases the amount of time wasted looking for a place to leave a vehicle. Public transportation presents challenges of its own, such as overfilled buses, trains, and subways during commuting hours, and underused routes due to lack of interest, poor planning, and other factors. The increased use of bicycles presents its own challenges when vehicles and bicycles share overfilled roadways that were not originally designed for multi-use scenarios. While vehicle operators and passengers may not be directly involved in the management and financing of transportation systems, they are the ones who directly experience the frustration and annoyance of using the transportation systems, all while carrying the tax burden of paying to build, operate, maintain, and upgrade them.